diff --git a/gnu/local.mk b/gnu/local.mk
index 7ef5ef7a6cd9469dd3bc9b6cf5cffa0b46174c31..4e6fb7c1d8913c5cfb2bddda13e2c61c3e54b2e4 100644
--- a/gnu/local.mk
+++ b/gnu/local.mk
@@ -1192,6 +1192,7 @@ dist_patch_DATA =						\
   %D%/packages/patches/opencv-rgbd-aarch64-test-fix.patch	\
   %D%/packages/patches/openfoam-4.1-cleanup.patch			\
   %D%/packages/patches/openjdk-10-idlj-reproducibility.patch	\
+  %D%/packages/patches/openmpi-psm2-priority.patch		\
   %D%/packages/patches/openocd-nrf52.patch			\
   %D%/packages/patches/opensmtpd-fix-crash.patch		\
   %D%/packages/patches/openssl-runpath.patch			\
diff --git a/gnu/packages/mpi.scm b/gnu/packages/mpi.scm
index 79ee948765157025b12d15b0df0add0eb7076bd8..5fde6efae4761771732d468ce8181f9c7bfde709 100644
--- a/gnu/packages/mpi.scm
+++ b/gnu/packages/mpi.scm
@@ -174,7 +174,8 @@ (define-public openmpi
                           (version-major+minor version)
                           "/downloads/openmpi-" version ".tar.bz2"))
       (sha256
-       (base32 "0ms0zvyxyy3pnx9qwib6zaljyp2b3ixny64xvq3czv3jpr8zf2wh"))))
+       (base32 "0ms0zvyxyy3pnx9qwib6zaljyp2b3ixny64xvq3czv3jpr8zf2wh"))
+      (patches (search-patches "openmpi-psm2-priority.patch"))))
     (build-system gnu-build-system)
     (inputs
      `(("hwloc" ,hwloc-2 "lib")
diff --git a/gnu/packages/patches/openmpi-psm2-priority.patch b/gnu/packages/patches/openmpi-psm2-priority.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d9dd55801085b97f442d1ed23fc17357affbf1d0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gnu/packages/patches/openmpi-psm2-priority.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+PSM2 is the only valid implementation for OmniPath (OPA).  UCX also
+supports OmniPath, but it does so via Verbs, thus getting much lower
+performance (typically 3 GiB/s instead of 10 GiB/s).
+
+To work around that, give the mtl_psm2 component a higher priority
+than the pml_ucx component.
+
+See <https://www.mail-archive.com/users@lists.open-mpi.org/msg33581.html>.
+
+--- openmpi-4.0.2/ompi/mca/mtl/psm2/mtl_psm2_component.c	2019-11-15 17:06:15.142076840 +0100
++++ openmpi-4.0.2/ompi/mca/mtl/psm2/mtl_psm2_component.c	2019-11-15 17:06:22.242009379 +0100
+@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ ompi_mtl_psm2_component_register(void)
+         setenv("PSM2_DEVICES", "self,shm", 0);
+     }
+ 
+-    param_priority = 40;
++    param_priority = 55;
+     (void) mca_base_component_var_register (&mca_mtl_psm2_component.super.mtl_version,
+                                             "priority", "Priority of the PSM2 MTL component",
+                                             MCA_BASE_VAR_TYPE_INT, NULL, 0, 0,
+